Abstract
Foodborne Campylobacter jejuni infections are on the rise and responsible for worldwide serious health issues. Increasing resistance of C. jejuni strains against antimicrobial treatments, necessitates antibiotics-independent treatment options for acute campylobacteriosis. Activated charcoal (AC) constitutes a long-known and safe compound for the treatment of bacterial enteritis. In this preclinical intervention study, we addressed potential anti-pathogenic and immune-modulatory effects of AC during acute experimental campylobacteriosis. Therefore, microbiota-depleted IL-10−/− mice were infected with C. jejuni by gavage and challenged with either AC or placebo via the drinking water starting on day 2 post-infection. On day 6 post-infection, AC as compared to placebo-treated mice did not only harbor lower intestinal pathogen loads but also presented with alleviated C. jejuni-induced clinical signs such as diarrhea and wasting symptoms. The improved clinical outcome of AC-treated mice was accompanied by less colonic epithelial cell apoptosis and reduced pro-inflammatory immune responses in the intestinal tract. Notably, AC treatment did not only alleviate intestinal, but also extra-intestinal and systemic immune responses as indicated by dampened pro-inflammatory mediator secretion. Given the anti-pathogenic and immune-modulatory properties of AC in this study, a short-term application of this non-toxic drug constitutes a promising antibiotics-independent option for the treatment of human campylobacteriosis.
Highlights
Foodborne campylobacteriosis due to infections with the Gram-negative bacterial enteropathogen Campylobacter jejuni cause significant burdens to the public health systems all around the globe [1,2]
We first addressed whether oral treatment of C. jejuni-infected mice with activated charcoal (AC) affected pathogenic colonization of the gastrointestinal tract
Following peroral infection with 109 viable bacterial cells, C. jejuni could stably establish in the intestinal tract of microbiotadepleted IL-10−/− mice with high median numbers of 109 colony-forming units (CFU) per gram large intestinal content (Figure 1)
Summary
Foodborne campylobacteriosis due to infections with the Gram-negative bacterial enteropathogen Campylobacter jejuni cause significant burdens to the public health systems all around the globe [1,2]. Since prevalence rates of human C. jejuni infections are progressively increasing worldwide, this infectious disease poses a global health issue which can only be solved by so called “One Health” approaches combining research efforts in human and veterinary medicine with governmental interventions and consumers’ protection [3,4,5]. The intestinal tract of avian vertebrates constitutes the major reservoir for the pathogen where C. jejuni bacteria behave as commensal residents and usually do not cause clinical signs in the colonized host [5]. C. jejuni-induced disease is usually self-limiting and resolves within 10 to 14 days post-infection (p.i.) [8].
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